Come on, people! Be Thankful!

"The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving." ~H.U. Westermayer

It's that time of year again, and I'm ready to make my post out to let ya'll know for what I am most grateful.

First and foremost, I'm thankful for my life. It's not perfect, far from it, in my opinion, but since when is perfection a requirement for finding happiness in your life? Since never, that's when!

Second, I'm grateful to be a member of my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This church has given me so much to be thankful for: the knowledge of a loving Savior who suffered and died for me; the knowledge of a loving Father in Heaven who is aware of me and my needs. This church has also given me friends in strange places and a reason to get up on Sunday mornings. It has given me a modern-day Prophet, Thomas S. Monson, whose wise counsel has given my life meaning and direction at times when I felt most lost. All in all, the Church is so much in my life, that it is part of who I am. I can't have life without it.

"We can lift ourselves and others as well when we refuse to remain in the realm of negative thought and cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude. If ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude takes its place among the noblest of virtues. Someone has said that 'gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.'" ~ Thomas S. Monson, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

From our engagement photos. We were so young... and thin.

Thirdly, and this is a no-brainer. I'm so grateful for my family! My husband is amazingly loving and supportive and gives me so much grief ... uh... I mean, love and reason to be happy with life. He puts up with my tears and holds me when I'm falling apart, which, I'm an emotional being, so that happens a lot! He has seen me at my highest high and my lowest low and I am so grateful for his continued love in my life.

About 9 months pregnant with Daniel.

My kids are obviously on this list as well. I can't believe how fast the time has flown. They were so little not so long ago. I'm glad I have been able to enjoy all the little moments with them along the way. That's what life is all about, isn't it?

Post breast-fed coma. Love that!

I wouldn't change my life for the world! These kids, my husband, my knowledge of who I am and what I can accomplish... this is what gives my life meaning. 

Certain times of the year, it's just necessary to reflect on the things that are most important in life, the things that make us grateful to be who we are. I hope you enjoyed my abbreviated, blog-worthy version. Now make your own! There's really nothing that will make you so happy as being grateful for what you have!

Picnic at the Lake

We met some new friends last weekend and had a picnic at Lake Monticello. It was really nice to meet some people our age with similar interests. They are not in similar life circumstances, meaning they don't have kids, they're not married, but they're in a committed relationship and they're both college educated adults, so I'll take it!

Miss E, we'll call her, was really great to talk with. She is aware of Sensory Processing Disorder and Autism Spectrum and applauded my efforts with Little D as well as my aspirations of working with families of Special Needs kids. She recommended books by Temple Grandin, who is an AMAZING woman living with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and is a healthy, successful individual. She's a PhD. She is an expert on animal behavior and has used her first-hand knowledge of sensory challenges associated with ASD to write books and other helpful and scholarly literature. You GO girl! Her life has also been made into an inspirational HBO movie starring Claire Danes.  More information about Temple Grandin can be found here.

Anyway, I'm posting a few pictures about our little lake excursion. It was a fairly warm day, not much of a breeze. Really nice weather for November, though, I'm not sure if that's just me or if that's this part of Arkansas too. Let's just say, to me, it's not Fall until the leaves are turning and it's consistently at least 50 or below. That's not the case here, but everyone is acting like it's really cold out. It isn't, but I digress.

Little D and Em loved the lake. They collected shells and Em just about walked right out into the water. She is fearless! We also heard some blood-curdling screeches from some very large Turkey Vultures and a Heron somewhere out there. I think they were snacking on some kind of carrion. Anyway, the lake is pretty. The kids had fun at the park and playing by the lake. It was a really great day. If I was doing a creative writing blog, I might use the picture of the dock as a writing prompt. It might go something like this:


"She stepped gingerly onto the weather-worn wooden dock, eyes never leaving her mark, the end of the pier."

Oooo... spooky. You do the rest. Happy Veteran's Day and writing, and all that.

Working it out

Over the last few weeks while being here in the SOuth, I have discovered an unpleasant fact. ... my pants are getting tight, my "muffin top" is rising like bread dough and my heaving breaths while carrying laundry baskets across the house have gotten... HEAVE-ier.

In response to this development I first began to rationalize it away. I'm in the South! It's humid down here. I must not be drinking enough water, so my body is retaining it. Retaining water = gaining weight. Sounds simple enough and I felt good about it for a while... well only a short while.

My kids have been increasingly interested in the aforementioned "muffin top" which is uncomfortable at best. Stop poking my fat! I'm aware of it, I'd rather not be, thank you!

AFter this first rationalization fell apart, I decided it must a combination of retaining water and eating too much. The logic is lost on me with this one, but that's waht I was thinking. Eat less = less me! Well, not so.

In any case, neither of these explanations that I so creatively came up with explained my winded-ness. I thought maybe the humidity was taxing my airways and I would eventually get used to it. Well, I'm used to it now and there has been little change. In fact, with fall settling into the very wooded area that we're in, the pollen of the pine trees is in full swing, there is more dust and my airways are more irritated than before!

So, this morning I woke up with a resolve to get into shape. I already found a podcast that plays remixed songs to a nice "running" beat. Well, I'm not about to try running, but I do enjoy dancing, so dance I did! I danced and did pilates moves and push ups and sit ups. It lasted about 45 minutes because it took me that long to get the kids off of me every so often.

I feel great! I even did the dishes afterward. I think I'm going to like this. It would be nice if I could get back into a size 6, but I seriously doubt my post 2 baby body will ever do that. So, if I have to stay my current size forever, I'd at least like to be fit and healthy. I don't want to be running after my kids and collapse.

Here's to success and to finding the motivation to keep on exercising! WOO HOO!

Arkansas ... Oh My!

Well, we've officially been in Arkansas for over a month now, and so far we are loving it. It took a couple weeks to adjust to the heat (over 100 degrees F for the first two weeks we were here) and to the humidity which has been at or close to 100% almost every day.

We live in a small two bedroom trailer in a little trailer park behind a discount grocery store, my Western readers would call it a "dollar store," except this store also has refrigerator and freezer sections. Walmart is the equivalent of the local mall, but if you want "real" mall shopping you have to drive at least an hour north to Pine Bluff. That is also where the Lowe's is.

Our town is called Monticello, like Thomas Jefferson's home, only you pronounce it "Maunt-i-SELL-uh" if you're a local. It is very much the South where we are and I feel a lot like a fish out of water, or to be more geographically appropriate, a mountain in a valley.

Right away we called our local church leader and found out that there is only a Branch, which means there are very few members of our church here. So far it looks like only about 30 people come each Sunday and that is counting all adults, teenagers and children. Thirty is probably a really good week, too, so we are not even sure how many people are members. Our small Branch covers several counties, towns and townships including part of Mississippi.

Callings ...

We have both gotten our callings and it happened pretty much right away. Needless to say, the Branch is extremely excited to have us in the area. I assumed I would be called into a musical calling, which has been a standard for my life over the past 4 plus years. However, I am in the nursery, but my official title is "Assistant in the Primary." Basically, I go and do whatever the Primary President needs me to do. I also have another calling which has been pretty intimidating for me so far. I am the Seminary teacher. I teach this year's curriculum, the Old Testament to teenagers from age 14 to 18. Most of them are 15 and is desperate need of some positive leadership, someone to be friendly and respectful and someone who can help them to learn the Gospel. I guess someone thinks that I am that person, but I still have my doubts. I didn't go on a mission, but I am a life-long member of the church and I have had teaching positions in the church before. The concern I have is when these awesome kids have questions (I got several last night) and I am not entirely sure how to answer, or find a reference for the answer that I have. So far (we have only met once) it has been really fun.

My Husband (Daddy) is the Branch Clerk, which basically means he is the bookkeeper, note taker and general "do it" guy for the Branch President and First Counselor (we don't have a Second Counselor). So he is busy on Sundays and we usually get home late, which means the kids are cranky and hungry, but we're learning to deal with it, and I'm learning to pack extra snacks!

One of the biggest adjustments has been a difference in what things are called down here.  Daddy asked the clerk at Walmart for some Otter Pops and they had no idea what he was asking for. Turns out they are called "freezer pops" here. Who knew!? Not us! There are so many things like that that I consider strange which are perfectly normal to them. I have also realized that I have to reword things that I say often so that people will understand me. I'm not sure how much of this is a difference in term definitions or vocabulary since I know I often use words that people don't know or understand.

Anyway, the only other really BIG news is that Little Sis is finally walking almost 50% of the time. Finally! She turned 18 months on Monday and she is just now deciding to take more than 5 steps at a time. She is doing so well with it now and is getting more confident and adventurous. However, if she wants to get somewhere in a hurry, she still hops down to her knees and does her little knee-walk/run. She is so funny.

Little D is moving into the next phase of his speech development... story telling. He narrates everything that happens and is starting to tell me what we're going to do, even if there is no way we're actually going to do those things. Here are his favorites ...

"Go get ice cweam cones"
"Go ... uh ... Walmart store."
"Go store get nanas."(Bananas)
"Go a park, a swide, say Weeee!"
"Go eat a FWENNDS!!" (friends)
"Watch Toy Story!!"
"Watch PeeR PAn."
"Mom, pweeze have some...
goldfish,
cackers,
cookies,
pie,
pAH-sick-ow,
ice cweeam samwich,
build a tower a bwocks."
He also likes to say prayers a lot now and it is so fun to listen to the things he thinks up to pray for like "ice cweam cones," "sissy eat a noo-nohs." (noodles). More about the FAB cross-country move coming.... soon.... ish.